‘We Had Pullmans and I Never Rode a Better Train’

The image on top of the stationery Babe used on this letter.

Dated June 1943; no postmark. It is unclear to me where this letter falls in the sequence. He references a card that he sent from Shenango, Penn., but I don’t have that. It’s possible that between his last letter on June 4 and this one that he wrote that card, but no other letters because he was on trains for a bit of the time. He may have only been at Shenango for a short time; this letter notes that he took the train from Camp Wheeler to Shenango, but that he took another train “here,” wherever “here” is. I speculated that it was Camp Shanks in New York.

Dear Ma, Pa, brothers and sister,

I don’t know how to start this letter except to tell you I am feeling fine and hope you are the same. As you can probably see by the envelope, this letter has been censored and you know what that means. I can’t even tell you what state I’m in, let alone the camp.

There is practically nothing to write about anymore now. All I can say is hello and goodbye.

Don’t try to send me any packages or anything like that because they won’t get here I don’t think. You don’t have to write to me by V-mail yet though.

I suppose you got the card I sent you from Shenango, Penn., already telling you my new address so I won’t have to tell you again.

I had a good ride from Camp Wheeler to Shenango. We had Pullmans and I never rode a better train. The first night, though, I left the windows open next to my berth and the next morning, when I woke up, I was sleeping on a bed of coal dust. From Shenango to here, we came in ordinary day coaches and we all got so dirty that two showers didn’t get me clean.